Technology constantly amazes. Researchers have come up with a new material that changes color in the same manner as nature's consummate color-changers, octopi and cuttlefish. Now, I don't think it's as adapted as these creatures to pattern- and color-match (example below), but given what can be accomplished with our amazing electronics and sensors and machine intelligence, that might happen sooner than imaginable.
So what can this remarkable material do?
"The team demonstrated that the same technique can be used to design and reveal complex, switchable color patterns. The researchers put thin, metallic layers on each side of the patterned polymer film to create Fabry-Pérot resonators, which isolate specific wavelengths of light based on the distance between the metal layers. As the polymer films swell to different widths, they display a variety of colors. With the same electron-beam patterning and the right mix of water and solvent, the single-colored sheet becomes a riot of colorful spots and splotches.
“By dynamically controlling the thickness and topography of a polymer film, you can realize a very large variety of beautiful colors and textures,” said Mark Brongersma, a professor of materials science and engineering and a senior author on the paper. “The introduction of soft materials that can expand, contract, and alter their shape opens up an entirely new toolbox in the world of optics to manipulate how things look.”
" “We want to be able to control this with neural networks – basically an AI-based system – that could compare the skin and its background, then automatically modulate it to match in real time, without human intervention,” Doshi said."
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